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These statistics are based on electronic card transactions during December 2009. Figures are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise stated. See the technical notes for industry descriptors.

Changes in the value of transactions (compared with November 2009) were as follows:

Total electronic card transactions were up (0.3 percent).

Transactions in the retail industries were up (0.7 percent).

Transactions in the core retail industries were up (0.4 percent).

By industry group, the largest increases were in automotive fuel retailing and consumables.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) value of transactions in the core retail series was up 3.6 percent from December 2008.

After adjusting for seasonal effects, the value of retail electronic card transactions increased 0.7 percent in December 2009. Automotive fuel retailing has been the main contributor to increases in this series since July 2009. Core retail (which excludes the motor vehicle-related industries) also increased in December 2009, by 0.4 percent. This increase was driven by the consumables industry.

When the non-retail industries are included, the total value of transactions was up by a lesser 0.3 percent, following the previous flat result (up just 0.1 percent) in November 2009. The non-retail industries were down 1.4 percent in December 2009.

Trends for the value of transactions in the total, retail, and core retail series have all been increasing since January 2009. Latest figures indicate that the growth rate for the retail series has picked up since August 2009, while the growth rate for the total series appears to have eased since then. For the core retail series, the trend has been comparatively flat in recent months, up 1.0 percent since June 2009.

Credit card use accounted for 44.6 percent of total transactions in the December 2009 quarter, an increase on the two previous quarters. This follows a general decline since the March 2008 quarter when the proportion was 47.7 percent.